IPL 2022 | Mumbai Indians become first team to lose seven straight games in single season

The five-time IPL champions, the Mumbai Indians, have hit a new low as they have become the first team to lose the first seven games in a single edition of IPL. 

The undesirable record was achieved by the most successful IPL side yesterday, as they were defeated by their arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings by three wickets in a thriller.

In this process, Mumbai broke the pre-existing joint record of Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who started their IPL campaigns with six consecutive defeats in 2013 and 2019, respectively. 

Furthermore, this is the eleventh instance of a team having a seven-match losing streak in an IPL season, with MI being the only team with IPL trophies to achieve this substandard milestone. 

Talking about the game, MI posted a modest total of 155 after being invited to bat first on a wicket that had spongy bounce. The young Mukesh Choudhary was the wrecker-in-chief for CSK as he dismantled Mumbai’s top order by dismissing Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Dewald Brevis in his first two overs. However, the fighting knocks of Tilak Varma (51 off 43), Suryakumar Yadav (32 off 21) and Hrithik Shokeen (25 off 25) helped MI breach the 150-run mark. 

In reply, CSK also had a poor start as Ruturaj Gaikwad was sent back to the dugout by Daniel Sams in the first over. Although Robin Uthappa and Ambati Rayudu added 50 runs for the third wicket, the frequent loss of wickets in the middle overs left the four-time champions reeling at 108 for six at the end of 16 overs. 

But some extraordinary batting by MS Dhoni in the 20th over snatched the victory from MI’s claws, as the legendary keeper-batter smashed 16 runs off four balls against Jaydev Unadkat to provide CSK with a memorable win. 

With the seventh loss, MI’s hopes of qualifying for the playoffs are almost done and dusted. CSK, too, would hope for a miraculous comeback to ensure a playoff spot as they are sitting at the 9th spot with two victories from seven matches.